The Epistle TO Diognetus. CHAPTER 1 Since I see, most excellent Diognetus , that thou art exceedingly anxious to understand the religion of the Christians. Answer: The Letter (or Epistle) to Diognetus is a second- or third-century work the Letter to Diognetus purports to be written by a student of the apostles who. The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus is probably the earliest example of Christian apologetics, writings defending Christianity from its accusers.

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Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.

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Letter to Diognetus | early Christian work |
Let your heart be your wisdom; and let your life be true knowledge inwardly received. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution.
Is not one of them a stone similar to that on which we tread? Is not a sixth earthenware, in no degree more valuable than that which is formed for the humblest purposes? Retrieved from ” https: When you have read and carefully listened to these things, you shall know what God bestows on such as rightly love Him, being made [as you are] a paradise of delight, presenting in yourselves a tree bearing all kinds of produce and flourishing well, being adorned with various fruits.
Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. Is not a fourth silver, which needs a man to watch it, lest it be stolen?
Letter to Diognetus
He was aware, then, of all things in His own mindalong with His Son, according to the relation subsisting between them. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine.
Do you accept of the vain and silly doctrines of those who are deemed trustworthy philosophers? Internet URLs are the best. Apologetics, in Christianity, the intellectual defense of the truth of the Christian religion, usually considered a branch of theology. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.
For it is not by ruling over his neighbours, or by seeking to hold the supremacy over those that are weaker, or by being rich, and showing violence towards those that are inferior, that happiness is found; nor can any one by these things become an imitator of God. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we’ll add it to the article.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles: The Christians in the world. They are put to death, and yet they are endued with life. In Protestant wpistle, apologetics can be distinguished from polemics, in which the beliefs of a particular Christian church are defended.
Diognetus. The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus (translation J.B. Lightfoot).
For which reason He sent the Word, that He might be manifested to the world; and He, being despised by the people [of the Jews ], was, when preached by the Apostles, believed on by the Gentiles. Wikisource has original text related to this article: And to glory in the circumcision of the flesh as a proof of election, and as if, on account of it, they were specially beloved by God — how is it not a subject of ridicule? They are in want of all things, and yet they abound in all things.
The Jewsthen, if they abstain from the kind of service above described, and deem it proper to worship one God as being Lord of all, [are right]; but if they offer Him worship in the way which we have described, they greatly err. See not only with thine eyes, but with thine intellect also, of what substance or of what form they chance to be whom ye call and regard as gods.
The Greek writer and recipient are not otherwise known; estimates of dating based on the language and other textual evidence have ranged from AD [1] which would make it one of the earliest examples of apologetic literatureto the late 2nd century, with the latter often preferred in modern scholarship.

Come, then, after you have freed yourself from all prejudices possessing your mindand laid aside what you have been accustomed to, as siognetus apt to deceive you, and being made, as if from the beginning, a new man, inasmuch as, according to your own confession, you are to be the hearer of ciognetus new [system of] doctrine; come and contemplate, not with your eyes only, but with your understanding, the substance and the form of those diovnetus you declare and deem to be gods.
Or, how will you love Him who has first so loved you? For God has loved mankindon whose account He made the world, to whom He rendered subject all the things that are in it, to whom He gave reason and understanding, to whom alone He eppistle the privilege of looking upwards to Himself, whom He formed after His own image, to whom He sent His only-begotten Son, to whom He has promised diognetuz kingdom in heaven, and will give it to those who have loved Him. This does not seem to be the work of man: By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God?
Might not the vessels which are now made out of the same material, if they met with the same artificers, be made like unto such as these? For he who thinks he knows anything without true knowledgeand such as is witnessed to by life, knows nothing, but is deceived by the Serpent, as not loving life.
Who of us would ever have expected these things? They have a common table, but not a epistlle bed. Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. And next, I imagine that you are most desirous of hearing something on this point, that the Christians do not observe the same forms of divine worship as do the Jews.
